Moto G - Bang for the buck

By Hassan M Kamal |Posted 28-Jan-2014

Available under 18k, the new Moto G from Motorola is easily the best buy within that price range. The GUIDE brings an exclusive preview of the phone

While Motorola is yet to announce the launch dates of the new Moto G, The GUIDE managed to get its hands on the new handset, ahead of its launch. There are many speculations surrounding the phone, including whether it will be a single sim or dual sim. Most of these questions will be answered only once the phone is officially launched in India (an announcement is expected in the first week of February). But irrespective of that, from what we have seen of the Moto G, if a dual sim is not really your requirement, this is easily one of the best buys within the 18K range. Here’s how:

What we likedImpressive specs: To begin with, the specs are impressive. It has a 4.5-inch HD display with a resolution of 720x1280 pixels (329ppi), Corning Gorilla Glass 3 screen, a quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 based on the Cortex-A7 architecture, coupled with an Adreno 305 GPU and 1GB of RAM. Could we ask for more? Not really.

Gaming: The quad-core processor performs really well, even while playing high-on graphic games like the Dungeon Hunter 4. Thanks to the Adreno 350 GPU, 3D rendering is better than the Google Nexus, which would cost you at least another five grand — considering the Moto G (16GB) is available within 18K.

Android Kit Kat: Though not a Nexus, the Moto G runs on Kit Kat 4.4.2, making it one of the most updated phones in the market within that price range. It means more security features, an updated search engine, among other features.

Impressive battery life: The battery lasted for a day and half, including at least two hours of gaming without any recharge.

What we didn’t likeControls: The control keys, on the Moto G, are part of the display and eat up at least half an inch of the screen. And then we found the screen to be a bit darkened around the keys, which makes watching a video or a film on it a bit irritating.

Poor camera: The Moto G has a 5MP rear camera and 1.3 MP front camera, which are the least impressive features of the phone.

No NFC: Though expecting 4G connectivity at this price would be hoping for the moon, an absence of NFC was a tad disappointing.

All-in-all, considering the pricing and the battery life of the phone, the Moto G wins over most phones, including the Nexus 4 and Samsung S3.